Yuxin Yin et al 2007 Nanotechnology 18 495608 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/18/49/495608
Yuxin Yin, Zhengguo Jin and Feng Hou1
Show affiliationsA novel fabrication route for core/sheath heterostructure CdS/TiO2 nanotube arrays is proposed using ac electrodeposition for application in photoelectrochemical cells. The morphologies of the CdS/TiO2 electrodes, which were prepared by electrochemically depositing CdS directly into anodic titanium nanotubes from an electrolyte containing Cd2+ and S in dimethyl sulfoxide, were characterized by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The deposited material was found to be in a hexagonal CdS structure by x-ray diffraction (XRD). The synthesized CdS/TiO2 electrodes showed much higher photocurrent density in the visible wavelength region than pure TiO2 nanotube arrays. We demonstrate that ac deposition voltage and time can control the CdS/TiO2 composite architecture, which is crucial in determining the overall efficiency of the water-splitting reaction. The maximum photocurrent density was obtained with the core/sheath heterostructure CdS/TiO2 nanotube arrays, which were fabricated by deposition of CdS at 5 V for 30 min with 2.5 µm tube length.
81.16.-c Methods of nanofabrication and processing
68.37.Hk Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (including EBIC)
Issue 49 (12 December 2007)
Received 2 April 2007, in final form 29 July 2007
Published 15 November 2007
Yuxin Yin et al 2007 Nanotechnology 18 495608
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